


Your Monster

by Sidhe



Category: Original Work
Genre: Horror, Nightmare, Original Fiction, Short Story, dream - Freeform, night terror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-18
Updated: 2012-12-18
Packaged: 2017-11-21 12:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/597634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sidhe/pseuds/Sidhe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A work written for a challenge, inspired by night terrors.  Written from the perspective of the monster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Monster

I am fear. I am nightmares. I am true terror. Don’t you remember me? I am that thing you were afraid of as a child, the one who was always with you, even when your parents were not, but of course you remember me because I am still with you now. While you think you are alone in your bedroom, tucked safe in your bed, I am watching, waiting in the shadows beneath you. Soon you will sleep. Soon you will be mine again. 

There is no defense from me. You cannot hide. Cross your fingers all you want, say your prayers religiously by night. Your faith means nothing because inside you know I can still reach you. You know there is no one who can save you, no one ever has before. When you close your eyes and begin to dream sweetly, you are mine.

Though you may dream of paradise, the heavens you will never reach, I am in the back of your mind, lurking in your thoughts. You never know when I will strike, maybe tonight, but maybe not. The anticipation is half the fun. Because even if you don’t see me for years, or even a lifetime, you know that I will be back. I have been with you longer than anyone else. I, alone, know your hidden desires, your fears, every dark spot in your soul, and though the memory of me may dim, you will always be mine.

You never know when I will strike. I will lure you in; give you a taste of peace. You remember last time don’t you? I let you dream that you were asleep, lying contently in your bed. You remember counting your breaths, in and out, the pure peace of simply being alive. I remember grinning. Your innocence was humorous to me. Slowly, I pressed against your throat. Your heart began to flutter like a bird trapped in a cage. Nervousness overcame you, but you still had no sense of me. You tried to open your eyes, but I kept them closed. You tried to shift, but I held you down. I pressed at your limbs and knew that you could finally feel me. You knew that I was back and you fought against being mine.

One thrash of motion, then another, and then you truly fought back. I pressed on your neck harder and I imagine you felt as if you were drowning. You thrashed and fought, and I let you think you could win for one glimmering moment, but then I mercilessly crushed your senses again. You could feel my glee, my terrible intent. I know you could. You trembled in my hold like a child cowering from blows unseen. I laughed in your ear; I taunted you, pulling at your hair. I used it to drag you to the edge of the bed. Then, I waited for one perilous instant. I let you dread how I would hurt you once I plucked you from the safety of your bed, once you were on the same level as me. I glorified in the scent of your fear and then I ripped you down and, in that instant that you were falling toward my darkness, you feared you were mine.

But what fun would it have been to claim you then? Why end our twenty-two year game for one moment of glory? There was so much more fun to be had, you were still so young. I still had years to claim you for my own, to pull you into the darkness and taint that pure white soul and, so, after I pulled you from your bed, you never hit the floor. I saved you from the darkness once, all for the sake of our little game. When you woke, you flew out of your bed. Your breath was coming so quickly I thought you might pass out, but you steadied yourself, and then you looked right at me and, in that moment that our eyes met, I saw that deep down in your soul, you knew you were mine.

**Author's Note:**

> I suppose that this story warrants an explanation. Firstly, this was written for a challenge on writing.com. I posted it here because I liked how it sounded as a monster story. Secondly, I am an insomniac and one of the symptoms that I face is called “sleep paralysis”. This is an event where your conscience mind is trying to wake up, but your sub-conscience mind is still in control of your body. This does not occur every night; I can go years between bouts. Usually, it is caused by deprivation of sleep, but some sleeping pills and pain killers can affect me enough to cause it. Basically, I go from being asleep (sometimes dreaming peacefully, but usually it is accompanied by nightmares or terrors), to partially I awake. I can hear every conversation going on in the room that I am in and I can even repeat them once I am fully awake, but I have a hard time opening my eyes, usually my breathing becomes labored like something is pushing down on my neck or chest, and I cannot move my body no matter how hard I try. The worst part is that the sub-conscience tries to pull you back under if you manage to get to the point where you can move around a little. I can spend hours caught between being asleep, in paralysis mode, and then fighting off going back to sleep. 
> 
> The particular instance that I described occurred when my sleep paralysis was paired with a night terror. I dreamed that I was in bed sleeping and then my sleep paralysis kicked in. I got this horrible feeling that something was underneath my bed. The sleep paralysis made it hard for me to breath and my dream interpreted it as the thing choking me and then I got the feeling that there were hands coming up from behind me and cording themselves into my hair. The hands started yanking on my hair and I could actually feel the pain in my sleep. That instance freaked me out a lot. The part about being dragged off the bed is a reoccurring nightmare that I get with sleep paralysis. This is the nightmare that is actually most common for me. I am lying in bed and I can feel something enter the room and then it grabs me and drags me off the bed while I am paralyzed and struggling to even open my eyes. I have only hit the floor twice in those dreams and it got so far as to start pulling me under the bed before I snapped out of it. 
> 
> Sorry if my explanation is almost as long as my story.


End file.
